Call for Demuren’s sack baseless, says NCAA

Nigeria Civil Aviation Autjority (NCAA), yesterday described as unwarranted the call for the sack and prosecution of its Director-General, Dr. Harold Demuren.

It said the reasons adduced by the lawmakers are baseless and laced with falsehood.

The House of Representative Committee on Aviation said Demuren should be relieved of his post over his role in the June 3, 2012 crash of DANA Air,

In a statement, the Media Assistant to the Demuren, Sam Adurogboye, said : ” We are not particularly bothered about the call for the sack and the call for criminal prosecution, but the reasons adduced for the call are based on falsehood, fallacies and misrepresentation of facts.

“These are the fallacies we intend to address here for the interest of the nation’s aviation sector, the flying public and its continued relevance before the international aviation community.”

The report alleges that the DANA Air MD 83 aircraft type has been phased out all over the world. “We make bold to say that the MD 83 aircraft type has not been phased out worldwide,” Adurogboye stated.

He said the second issue raised in the report which needs to be properly addressed, is that the NCCA does not have any licensed aircraft Inspector type-rated on the MD 83 aircraft.

He argued that NCAA has Aviation Safety Inspectors, comprising Pilots, and Air-worthiness experts who are trained on MD83 and effectively carryimg out day-day routine regulatory safety oversight on the given aircraft.

“But what is important to note is that the NCAA insists on the religious adherence to the stipulated Maintenance Programme for all airlines as contained in the Manufacturer’s Maintenance Manual (MMM) and NCAA Approved Maintenance Programme.

“We want to also emphasise that this mandatory Maintenance Programme is carried out at designated and NCAA Approved Maintenance Organisations (AMO) abroad for the purposes of achieving the highest standards of safety. This outside maintenance programme is carried out under the strict supervision of NCAA Safety Inspectors. So the question of the safety of aircraft operating in the nation’s airspace, in spite of the lack of AMO’s in the country is not in doubt.

“Finally, the report alleges incompetence on the part of the NCAA’s DG. It is important to note that the current DG came on board at a time when the nation’s safety record was at his lowest ebb, with series of disastrous air crashes. The resulted effect was that foreign airlines from America were banned from flying direct into the Nigerian airspace and vice versa for Nigerian Airline Operator’s Aircraft,” he said.